Israel and Hamas completed the sixth exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners on Saturday with just over two weeks remaining in their fragile Gaza ceasefire’s initial phase, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio landed in Israel to begin a Mideast tour.
Israelis expressed relief as the three hostages — Argentinian-Israeli Iair Horn, 46; American-Israeli Sagui Dekel Chen, 36; and Russian-Israeli Alexander Troufanov, 29 — seemed in better condition than the emaciated ones freed a week ago.
Troufanov was informed of his father’s death in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the 16-month war. Chen was meeting his youngest daughter for the first time. Horn’s brother, Eitan, remains in captivity.
Armed militants made the pale, worn men speak to a crowd before handing them over to the Red Cross in the southern city of Khan Younis. The 369 Palestinian prisoners were later released.
A tense dispute had threatened to derail the ceasefire, but Hamas said Thursday it would move ahead with the planned exchange after it said mediators Egypt and Qatar pledged to “remove all hurdles” so Israel would allow more tents, medical supplies and other essentials into devastated Gaza.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove Gaza’s over 2 million Palestinians and settle them elsewhere in the region also shook the truce. Rubio will hear more about that, starting with his meeting Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
